This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

My cousin's daughter raced from her flooding Brooklyn apartment with her baby, not even having time to bring along diapers. Her story puts a human face to the Hurricane Sandy disaster that The Tribune documented so well in "Sandy slams into N.J. coast, darkens NYC" (Tribune, Oct. 30). Others lost everything they had, some even their lives.

This powerful and destructive storm came with identifiable markers of human-caused climate change. With the Northeast Atlantic ocean 5 degrees warmer than average, the storm carried more water and traveled farther north than storms have in the past. Also, a record storm surge rose above an ocean level that was higher than it was just 30 years ago. The northeast seas have risen four times faster than the global average.

Why not take this unprecedented, deadly storm as a wake-up call? The human use of fossil fuels has caused a dangerous disruption to our climate.